I don't much like making buttonholes either but it's fun to have these old things and know how they work. I prefer to use a seam ripper if i need to open a buttonhole.
Ok I have been working on this thing for a few days now.. Step one clean the outside (first cleaning) and the inside to remove old nasty hardened oils. I re-oiled and started trying to break things free. Oh, the first thing I did was remove the motor and light since I won't be needing those for awhile.
I managed to get the needle bar moving and was able to get the bobbin winder nice and freed up. So far the bobbin winder is the only part of the machine that is really moving well and it had been frozen solid.
After a couple days the basic action started sounding squishy and I found old thread wrapped around behind the bobbin area and was able to remove it. After that the needle bar was moving a bit better. *Don't get too excited, I've lost whatever ground I had gained there.
The stitch width knob and needle position were horribly frozen...knob to bar, bar frozen further inside machine, etc. I was able to the get knob unfrozen from the bar and off. Baby steps.
Last night I was able to break the bar loose and turn it and as I worked it, it loosened up even more. *I seem to have lost 90% of that overnight too.
I am trying to remove the hook and whatnot in the bobbin area as that is the only place that had some rust and I would like to be able to get these pieces smoothed out. It involves removing SIX tiny screws. I have 4 out. The other 2 are playing hardball and someone has slightly stripped one of them prior to me getting this machine.
I keep reminding myself these things don't freeze up overnight. Don't expect them to unfreeze overnight.
Small successes are thrilling, but there are still many more parts to this battle to get this sewing machine working again.